A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to alkaline earth metal aluminate spinels, and methods for the preparation and use thereof.
B. Description of Related Art
High surface area (HSA) materials are used in a wide array of chemical processes. HSA materials are frequently made by producing small, porous materials. These porous materials can be made, for example, by precipitation from solution.
Thermally stable, high surface area mesoporous materials have been found applicable in catalysis, separation, sorption, sensing, and fuel cells, to name a few. In one technique, HSA mesoporous materials can be synthesized by precipitation from solution in the presence of surfactants as templating agents. Though synthesizing HSA metal oxides is an achievable task, the high surface areas are not easily maintained after high temperature calcination. Ideally, HSA metal oxide supports in industrial applications can facilitate high loading of active metals with a corresponding increase in the turn over frequency (TOF) of the chemical reaction. It would be desirable to have active metal loaded catalysts on an HSA material with enhanced activity, such that TOF values can be achieved with smaller reactor volumes.
While significant research and developments have been made in the area of HSA materials, such as, for example, spinels, there is still a need for improved materials that can retain all or a significant portion of their surface area after high temperature calcination. This need and other needs are satisfied by the compositions and methods of the present disclosure.